Albany Symphony Orchestra, Palace Theatre, Oct. 21, 2006

If buildings have feelings, then Albany’s Palace Theatre was probably in a happy and nostalgic mood Saturday night. The former RKO movie house, which opened in 1931, was filled with film music mostly from the silver screen era, thanks to the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s “Hurray for Hollywood” program. Audience members of the same vintage as the
theater seemed to also take delight in the journey back in time.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Joining conductor David Alan Miller and the ASO was pianist Kevin Cole, a noted Gershwin specialist who has become a regular guest whenever the orchestra delves into the American songbook. Miller and Cole pulled off a couple of clever stunts that gave a bit of electricity to an evening that was otherwise about sitting back and feeling good.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â As Gene Kelly’s famous number “Singing in the Rain” showed on a rather small screen above the stage, Cole watched and sang and Miller watched and led the orchestra. The rain portion of the soundtrack played along. It worked well enough, mostly because what’s on the screen is pure magic.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â In an even more daring feat, Cole performed the third movement of Gershwin’s Concerto in F to Oscar Levant’s tempestuous account of it in the movie “An American in Paris.” The humor of the film was again the dominant factor, but Cole had plenty of other moments to shine in his own right.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Gershwin drew on material from his score to the 1931 “Delicious” when he composed his Second Rhapsody, which Cole played for us a couple of seasons back. Miller had the idea to find the original eight minutes of music and the ASO here gave its concert premiere. It was potent and varied and Cole was great, especially in the modernist machine-like interlocking attacks near the beginning. Elsewhere, Cole sang Kern’sÂ
“The Way You Look Tonight” in a gentle crooning voice. It was hard not to hum along.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Much of the evening felt like hearing a succession of Broadway overtures, though without the New York City punch. In addition to Gershwin and Kern medleys, there was Max Steiner’s “Gone with the Wind” and the murky, warmed-over Rachmaninoff music that played in the 1941 film “Dangerous Midnight.”

Joseph Dalton is a local freelance writer who contributes regularly to the Times Union.
ALBANY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
“Hurray for Hollywood”
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Palace Theatre, Albany
Duration: Two hours with one intermission
The crowd: About 2,000 people of all ages, but mostly senior citizens with smiles on their faces